McIlroy, Donald tied for the lead

Last updated: 25th November 2012

The top two players in the world rankings will go head to head on the final day of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai after Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald finished round three on 17-under.

Donald has still not dropped a stroke all week, and could become the first player to win a tournament on the circuit without a bogey since Jesper Parnevik in 1995 if he goes on to pip world number one McIlroy on Sunday.

Impressively, Donald has now played 100 holes at the Earth course without making a bogey.

Both players carded six-under 66s on Saturday, which was good enough to give them a three-shot lead over the two South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

It was Donald who made the early running as he birdied two, three, seven and nine to turn in 32, and the Englishman made further gains on the two back nine par fives.

Meanwhile McIlroy started with a bogey and looked uncertain, but then found his feet to make sure that that was the only blemish on his scorecard.

The Northern Irishman came back strongly on the back nine, drawing level with Donald with an eagle at 14 before a birdie at the last allowed him to come home in 31.

Schwartzel and Oosthuizen were left to rue a series of missed opportunities as they fluffed birdie chances and ended with 67 and 68 respectively for the round.

Joost Luiten and Branden Grace are two shots adrift of the South Africans on 12-under, while Marc Warren - who was tied for the lead overnight - slipped back after shooting a par 72. Warren is now tied in a big group on 11-under.

Earlier Jeev Milkha Singh missed a 15-foot chance on the final green to set a new course record, and was instead forced to 'settle' for a share of the existing course record with six others. The round of 64 lifted the Indian from one over to seven under.